“I would never recruit a player who yells at his teammates, disrespected his high school coach, or scores 33 points a game and his team goes 10-10” – Dean Smith “I always mean what I say, but I don’t always say what I’m thinking” – Dean Smith “What do you do with a mistake: recognize it, admit it, learn from it, forget it” – Dean Smith
“You should always sub a player out when you see them not going full speed or they’re playing selfish basketball” – Dean Smith I don’t have any other goals” – Brad Stevens “My goal is to win the next game one possession at a time. “How good can we expect to be if our best player is not our best teammate” – Brad Stevens “You have to earn your right to win the game with effort and togetherness” – Brad Stevens “The difference between a good defensive team and a bad defensive team is as little as three possessions” – Brad Stevens Entitlement will not be tolerated” – Brad Stevens “We’re building a culture of accountability, trust, and togetherness. “The game honors toughness” – Brad Stevens Either you’re invested and a great teammate, or your not” – Brad Stevens “You have a choice to make when you’re not playing. Try to play one possession at a time, regardless of what happened on the last possession” – Brad Stevens
No one can guard a good dribbler, You have to walk kids through how to help and then how to help the helper” – Bob Knight “In order to achieve to achieve positive results, one must work for them, not hope for them” – Bob Knight “My practices were not set up to be easy or enjoyed” – Bob Knight “Good basketball always starts with good defense!” – Bob Knight “A quick way for any player to make himself better is to think about what he himself doesn’t like to play against” – Bob Knight
“Coaches shouldn’t have to push you to work hard, you should push yourself to work hard because you want to be a great player” – Bob Knight The shot fake, when used correctly, can eliminate a defender” – Bob Knight “I sit and wonder why no one uses the shot fake. “Perform drills that force your players to think” – Bob Knight “Offense is not equal opportunity” – Bob Knight “Mental is to the physical as four is to one” – Bob Knight To me, the most enjoyable part is the practice and preparation” – Bob Knight The game! I don’t need the 18,000 people screaming and all the peripheral things. “I just love the game of basketball so much. “Discipline is doing what has to be done, when it has to be done, as well as it can be done, and doing it that way all the time” – Bob Knight If they can’t, then they can’t play” – Bob Knight “Players must be able to carry out simple instructions from the bench to the court. Dribble penetration is your best weapon against zone” – Bob Knight “Passing is your best weapon against man to man. “What is the best thing you can do in a close game? Drive to the basket and put pressure on the defense! Not jack up jump shots” – Bob Knight
Every shot is preceded by working to get open and catch and shoot under game like conditions” – Bob Knight “I always designed my practice plans the night before and then made tweaks a few hours before practice began” – Bob Knight “Basketball is a full court game, so every drill must be done full court” – Bob Knight “The goal is to make practice more difficult, physically/mentally, than anything your players will face during a game” – Bob Knight “You don’t play against opponents you play against the game of basketball” – Bob Knight It is the will to prepare to win that is important” – Bob Knight “The key is not the ‘will to win’… everybody has that. “The single most important aspect of coaching is running effective practices” – Bob Knight The idea is to make your opponent believe that you might block every shot” – Bill Russell “The only important statistic is the final score” – Bill Russell When he goes on to the court, his presence dominates the atmosphere” – Bill Russell “What distinguishes a great player is his presence. “Commitment separates those who live their dreams from those who live their lives regretting the opportunities they have squandered” – Bill Russell If you make the other guy deviate from his habits, you’ve got him” – Bill Russell “Remember that basketball is a game of habits. “The most important measure of how good a game I played was how much better I’d made my teammates play” – Bill Russell
“The most important thing to me is the friends that I’ve made” – Bill Russell “Concentration and mental toughness are the margins of victory” – Bill Russell “Create unselfishness as the most important team attribute” – Bill Russell